History of Chick-fil-a
Chick-fil-A is a restaurant. However, the first freestanding location was opened in 1986, and most new store openings today are as well. This is emphasized by the fact that the chain now has over 2,200 such units. It also has over two dozen drive-through-only locations. There are also restaurants in universities, hospitals, and airports through licensing agreements. The chain grew from the Dwarf Grill (later the Dwarf House, a name still used by the chain), a restaurant opened by S. Truett Cathy, who is still the company's chairman, in the Atlanta suburb of Hapeville in 1946. This restaurant is located near the now demolished Ford plant, where workers once caught meals between shifts. The first Chick-fil-A opened in a mall was established in Atlanta's Greenbriar Mall in 1967. The company claims that their current slogan, "We Didn't Invent the Chicken, Just the Chicken Sandwich," is based on a true story: at a time when hamburgers dominated fast-food menus since the beginning, Cathy was credited with creating and inventing the chicken sandwich, which went on to be Chick-fil-A's flagship menu item. His big idea for the chicken sandwich stemmed from the idea of creating a quick way to serve food. He discovered that pressure cooking the chicken in peanut oil allowed for a fast serving time. The sandwich also comes with two pickles simply because that was the only condiment he had on hand when the sandwich was created. Chick-fil-A achieved quite a bit of notability in October 2003, when it was publicly announced in a major ad campaign that a new store, opening in Goodyear, Arizona, on October 16, 2003, would offer, to the first 100 to enter its doors, coupons for a free combo meal every week for a year. Along with this promotion (which was widely featured on the Internet), the company threw a huge opening day carnival, complete with karaoke, free ice cream, klieg lights, and prize raffles. The "First 100" promotion is now held at the opening of every new Chick-fil-A restaurant, with people camping out for up to several days before the opening to guarantee their place in line. Since 1997, the Atlanta-based company has been the title sponsor of the Peach Bowl, an annual college football bowl game played in Atlanta. Beginning in the 2006 season, the Peach Bowl became the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Chick-fil-A also is a key sponsor of the SEC, ACC, and Big 12 conferences of college athletics. "EAT MOR CHIKIN" is the chain's most prominent advertising slogan, created by The Richards Group. The slogan is often seen in advertisements featuring sign-wearing cows. According to Chick-fil-A's advertising strategies, the cows have united in an effort to reform American food, in an effort to reduce the amount of beef which is eaten. They wish the American public to refrain from eating beef burgers, common at Chick-Fil-A's competitors, such as McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's, and instead focus on eating chicken, or "chikin" as the cows spell it. The ad campaign was temporarily halted during a mad cow disease scare in late 2003/early 2004 so as not to make the chain seem insensitive or appear to be taking advantage of the scare to increase its sales. A few months later, the cows were put up again. The cows replaced the chain's old mascot, Doodles, an anthropomorphized chicken who still appears as the C on the logo. Occasionally, in their television commercials, the cows "take matters into their own hooves" and become somewhat combative in their efforts to get people to "EAT MOR CHIKIN." One recent Chick-fil-A commercial featured a cow jumping on top of a passing minivan and stealing the occupants' sack of fast-food burgers, much to the shock of a very young boy (whose parents, seated in the front seat, were completely oblivious). The company's TV ad for 2006 featured bovines parachuting onto a football field during a college football game, complete with "EAT MOR CHIKIN" banners, and attacking the hamburger vendor. Sometimes these billboards incorporate a little bit of local color or local inside jokes. One such example showed up in Knoxville, Tennessee, during 2003. The billboard was located along Interstate 40 in the West Hills neighborhood and featured an orange (instead of white) background with traffic cones and a cow wearing a safety vest. The text on the billboard read, "CHIKIN ZONE NEXT 3000 MILES," a reference to the lengthy and expensive construction projects that have been the bane of Knoxville motorists since the early 1970s. Another billboard, located along southbound Interstate 75 on the north side of Atlanta, featured a cow dressed as Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind and the text, "Welcome to Atlanta, where it's proppa to eat chikin." Another billboard, visible on Interstate 85 northbound, somewhere south of Atlanta, depicts the words "This space for..." with the word "rent" scratched out and replaced with "CHIKIN", as well as a toll-free number that when dialed, directs callers to a recorded message of a man. The man greets you and says that "You have reached the "Bovine Chikin Chatline"". The man goes on to talk about different "bulls" and "heifers" that you can "get to know". Then the man goes on to talk about the cows interests and hobbies, including one whose pet peeves include, "cow tipping and the color red". It is obvious throughout the whole recording that the entire thing is for amusement only. Within the recording, he claims that a bull "loves people who eat chicken, and the folks at Chick-fil-A". In the closing line of the recording, the man encourages the caller to "hang up, and grab some chicken now". Chick-fil-A has also used a billboard that simply states, "We do chicken left." This was to indicate that the restaurant could be found by taking a left off the interstate exit, but was also a play on the former Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan, "We do chicken right." In addition, as part of a sponsorship deal with the Atlanta Braves, the company placed a giant 40 foot, 15,000 pound "tomahawk chopping" cow at the Braves' home field, Turner Field. The company also produces annual coupon-bearing "cow calendars" every year, featuring bovines in various parodies that have included "The Cow Channel" (2003), "Cow Superheroes" (2004), "Secret Agent Cows" (2005), "Cows in Shining Armor" (2006), "The Good, The Bad, and the Hairy" (2007), "One-Hit Wonder Cows" (2008), "The Bovines in Blue" (2009), and "Great Works of Cow Literature" (2010).